


Welcome to the real world

by DLoss



Category: RWBY
Genre: Explicit Language, Gen, Roman is having a bad day, Slight Canon Divergence, Threatening an underage girl, Vol 2 Chap 11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 19:12:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11973879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DLoss/pseuds/DLoss
Summary: A re-imagining of Ruby's interaction with Torchwick in Volume 2 Chapter 11: No brakes.Ruby knows this is temporary, her squad would never be far behind her.But right now Torchwick has some questions he'd like to ask. And here, in the real world, nobody asks nicely.





	Welcome to the real world

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ages ago, I just like the idea of the show being a little more realistic and a little less family friendly.
> 
> It's short and pretty mild as far as violence goes, but I hope you enjoy.

Roman had had a _day_.

Between dealing with a continually exasperating and frustrating Cinder and her demands despite lack of information, his lackeys – many of whom he was sure graduated some sort of idiot school for useless henchmen – and the fact he hadn’t seen the sun in three days; his temper was starting to wear real fucking thin.

He’d nearly shot Perry earlier when he brought tea instead of coffee. He was dismantling a kingdom here, not plotting a garden party. Caffeine in large doses was a constant requirement. With plenty of sugar.

He wasn’t a savage.

Still, reflex based murder had seemed harsh, so he’d taken it as a sign he needed a break. Tidy his office, get his mind off his dumbass boss and find five minutes without some white fang idiot asking him the same stupid questions all of the others had. So when Perry again showed up with a plate of bad news he wondered what the fuck the universe could be sending him now.

And, as amusing as it was to step off the train and find little Red looking confused, bewildered and terrified, it meant her friends probably weren’t far behind. This whole thing was about to go to shit and they had a deadline to meet.

Still though, it would be remiss of him to ignore an opportunity for intel. So, he put a smile on his face and, as Red pulled free of the men holding her and turned to say something scathing and teen-angsty, Roman took the opportunity to punch her in the mouth. Red went to the ground with an undignified grunt and Roman found his stress uncoiling a little.

“You were right Perry. I needed this.”

Perry looked confused but gave him a quick thumbs-up in agreement.

“Torchwick.” Red muttered as she struggled to sit up. Accusatory, like she hadn’t quite expected to find him.

“Gotta tell ya, Red.” He smiled, stepping over to her and leaning on his cane. “You are much easier to handle without your oversized garden tool.”

She glared at him. It was adorable.

Then she was gone. Well, that explained a little. Speed semblance.

She was back just as quickly with a hook around her stupid hood and slammed into the ground with a little more force than was perhaps necessary. But it was therapeutic.

“We’re not done here, Red.” He told her, looking down at her grimacing and trying to refill her winded lungs. “We’re going to have a little chat.”

There was an explosion somewhere down in the tunnel. Roman groaned as the murmur of talking and work in the station died down. Roman pressed the end of his cane hard into Red’s shoulder, making the girl grunt with pain and try to struggle free. Fast she may be, she was still a kid.

“Perry, can you take care of that for me? I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

Perry looked at him, looked at the girl and then back at him like he was conducting complicated equations in his head.

“Sure boss.” Was the eventual reply and he motioned the two guys standing with him to accompany him. Probably they would need the combined brain power to remember how to breathe. Roman sighed and shook his head.

“Good help is hard to find, don’t ya think, Red?” He asked. All he got in reply was mumbled teenage curse words. Roman laughed and leaned down to grab a fistful of the front of the kids dress. He hauled her to her feet and even she looked surprise by the ease in which he could do it. Roman pulled her around and took three paces back towards the car he’d just stepped out of.

Much harder for her to sprint in an enclosed space, he figured. She didn’t make it easy for him, struggling the whole way and trying to pull her dress free without tearing it. Like he’d said. Much more manageable.

“My… friends will come… you know!” She promised, digging in her heels. Roman tossed his cane onto the train car.

“Yes, thus the need to for the chat, Red.” He told her. “Watch your head.”

“Watch my-” She got halfway through her confused question before Roman reached down and picked her up and threw her bodily into the train. She hit the floor with a thud and skidded into the wall just as hard. She made a pathetic noise of pain. Roman hauled the door shut before she’d gotten any further than breathing and figuring out which way the floor was; so he picked up his cane and leaned against it, waiting.

“What are you doing?” Red demanded, her high whine of a voice wilting a little in the enclosed metal of the car.

“Right now?” He smiled. “Wondering what the fuck you’re doing so far from home.”

She didn’t reply, choosing instead to glare at him and try to control her fear.

“Or did you happen by on your way to class?” He suggested, leaning forwards onto his cane. “And my bad day just decided to make things worse?”

Again no reply. Roman sighed and the slight inclination of his head was all it took for Red to be on her feet and moving to attack. She was fast, gotta give the kid that. But she was inexperienced without a weapon.

She went to punch him and he deflected the blow back across her body and then backhanded her in the face. She spun a little, found her balance and ducked closer to him, forcing him to step back to avoid a hook his side. He responded quickly with a palm to her sternum, sending her to the floor hard. Roman stepped past her legs and pressed his boot into her middle, flattening the small girl to the floor. She tried to instantly wriggle free so he leaned all of his weight through her so, for good measure, he pointed his cane at her throat.

He clicked the sight and rested his index finger on the trigger. She froze. Her grey eyes snapped to his and stared, wide eyed and terrified.

 

Ruby could hear her heartbeat in her ears. The noise was deafening in the silence of the car. She could smell the scent of gun oil from the muzzle inches from her throat and she could barely focus on anything other than Torchwicks’ bright blue eyes. He was watching her carefully, almost to the point of study, and with rapidly dwindling patience.

Her hands were gripping the boot on her stomach, his considerable weight making it hard to breathe and her already burning lungs complain even louder. Her head was still swimming from being hit in the face, twice, and the blood from the split in her lip and the inside of her cheek made her mouth taste metallic. But seeing Torchwicks eye through the sight of the gun was what was pausing her.

She was not fast enough to get out of the way.

She was not strong enough to free herself.

If he fired now Ruby would die.

And, for a moment that stretched into eternity, she was almost sure he would. He blinked and sighed and some of the tension lowered. But he didn’t move the weapon. And he didn’t lift his foot.

“I’m kinda on a timeline here, Red, especially if your friends are on their way.” He told her, his voice dropping a little from its usual jovial tone. “So stop fucking around and tell me how you knew where we were.”

She stared at him in silence, still too scared and shocked to even muster a hateful glare. He was going to kill her.

She could feel herself shaking and she instantly hated herself. Ruby Rose talked a big game but still reacts like a little girl when threatened. She could almost hear Torchwick saying it. Instead his voice levelled a little and he inched the muzzle closer to her neck.

“You look a little spooked, Red.” He said. “What, didn’t you know that this is what happens when you piss off the wrong people? Did you think that I was secretly a good guy? Or that I wouldn’t shoot a child in the head?”

Ruby wanted to tell Roman that, no, she hadn’t thought that. But knowing something and experiencing it are two different things.

“Or in the throat, as it may be?” He added, almost an afterthought, twitching his weapon by example. He smiled at her and leaned a little harder into her abdomen. She grimaced.

“Welcome to the real world, Red.” He growled. “When you piss off the wrong people you get yourself killed. You get your friends killed.” He shrugged. “Only a matter of time, isn’t it? Who do you think you’ll lose first?” He asked.   
“No.” Ruby managed to reply, not entirely sure what she was replying to. Roman laughed anyway and straightened. She felt his weight shift and lift and she tried to get up before he kicked her in the side. _Hard_.

She hit the wall of the train car with a thud, breathless from pain. Her vision blurred from instinctive tears and she curled a little on the floor around her middle.

“No?” Roman laughed again from somewhere above her. “Hate to tell you, Red, but even if I don’t kill you or any of your friends today. Or tomorrow,” there was a hand in her collar and he hauled her to her feet and slammed her into the wall, pinning her against it with his arm against her throat, “then it’ll be someone else. Some other day. And let me tell you.” He leaned down so that he could lower his voice. “I hope I’m there to see your face.”

She couldn’t manage words passed the agonising pain in her stomach and the nausea rising in her throat so she settled for trying to glare at him, barely finding his face as the world spun around her.

“Last chance.” He said quietly. “How’d you know we were here, Red?”

She stayed silent out of principle more than anything else.

“No?” He pressed. “Alright then.” He spun and hauled her around and shoved her across the car, she stumbled and splayed onto the ground awkwardly scrambling just as quickly to get to her feet and get up. She turned to find Roman standing there with his weapon raised and cocked and pointed at her.

“Good fucking riddance, then.” He growled and an explosion rocked the car they were in. Ruby slid a little and hit the wall, Roman swore and fell and crashed into the wall next to her and the door of the car slid almost all the way open and then halfway back as the car settled back onto the tracks.

Ruby was out the door before Roman had managed to find his hands and knees and she heard him yelling after her as she sprinted as fast as she could towards familiar voices, pulling every inch of her semblance to get to her move _faster_.

Seconds later rounds were whipping by her head.

Torchwick was screaming at his men to kill her.

Ruby was still relieved.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback welcome! 
> 
> Thanks for dropping by.


End file.
